Myles MacGregor Austin-Olsen

Findings — machine-extracted (anthropic-batch:claude-opus-4-8); verify against the decision

Austin-Olsen, a solicitor admitted in 1977 practising as a consultant, made two improper payments from client account (£8,000 and £5,000, debited to an unrelated client ledger) to repay his own personal debts/loans, borrowed £30,000 from a client without ensuring independent advice (conflict of interest), failed to remedy the shortage (corrected by the firm), obtained a £95,000 bridging loan from HSBC by deception, and breached his undertaking to repay the bank from sale proceeds. He did not defend the allegations. The Tribunal found he had behaved dishonestly in relation to client monies and struck him off the Roll, ordering costs of £1,232.03. He had a prior 1994 finding (breach of undertaking, fined £500).

Duties found breached:

• No own-interest conflict
• No improper use of client money
• Honour professional undertakings

Aggravating factors:

• Prior 1994 disciplinary finding for failure to comply with a professional undertaking
• Misappropriation of client funds
• Misrepresentations to HSBC bank